One of the most successful marques in Formula One, Colin Chapman's iconic Lotus name was brought back to the sport for two years as a new, Norfolk-based team established itself.

After BMW announced they were pulling out at the end of 2009, the FIA reopened the selection process to ensure that the grid would have a full complement of 13 teams. On September 15, 2009 the FIA announced that the 13th team on the grid would be Lotus F1.

Lead by a company called 1Malaysia F1 Team, a partnership between the Malaysian Government and a consortium of Malaysian entrepreneurs, the team entered under the historic Lotus name - last seen on the F1 grid in 1994, powered by Mugen Honda engines.

The team was headed by team principal Tony Fernandes, founder and CEO of the Malaysian-based Tune group, the owner of the Air Asia airline. He hired Mike Gascoyne as technical director, with Gascoyne having over 20 years of experience in Formula One having previously performed the same role for the Force India, Toyota, Renault and Jordan teams.

The team was based at the RTN facility in Norfolk, 10 miles from the Lotus Cars factory. A 50,000 square foot facility, RTN was built by Toyota for its initial Formula One development and then used by Bentley for its successful Le Mans programme. Plans were in place for the team's future design, R&D, manufacturing and technical centre to be purpose built at Malaysia's Sepang International Circuit, but those plans soon changed and the team explored facilities in Leafield.

After an ugly court battle with the Lotus Group Fernandes won the right to continue under the Team Lotus name in 2011 but wanted to align his team with a car manufacturer. The purchase of Caterham Cars allowed him to do so, and the team will look to create its own history in 2012 as Caterham.